Thursday, March 08, 2012

I have been utilizing spinal decompression in my NYC
practice for over seven years. I have seen countless patients avoid back
surgery.

When a patients come
into our office with a MRI that shows a herniated
disc and lateral stenosis that abuts the Left L4 nerve root they usually
have a great deal of leg pain “Sciatica”. The term abuts is often in medical
terms describes a disc that is “touching or leaning about” the nerve.

This was the case with the patient case that I am writing
about.

A female patient initially came in over
6 months ago with a great deal of pain in her left leg which was accompanied by weakness. The
symptoms kept her from doing the things that she enjoyed doing like exercise and
walking, and sitting created a great deal of pain.

She did not want to take pain killers because they just made
her unsteady and tired. This is a major reason some people avoid taking medication to ease pain. In the long run medication simply masks the symptoms of an underlying issue, it doesn't fix the root cause of the pain.

When she presented with a MRI that clearly demonstrated a
Herniated disc at the Lumbar 4-5 level that
put pressure on L4 nerve root. We talked and discussed what we could do to help her and we concluded that, for her, spinal decompression on the DRX 9000 combined with Cox flexion distraction was very likely going to reduce her symptoms and would actually address the underlying
problem.

She had already begun noticing a reduction in symptoms by the 6th
session.

We completed the 20
visit protocol in 5 weeks and had her continue with her core strengthening
program which she had started with us so we could strengthen the muscles that lead to the structural weakness, which in turn allowed for an environment where injury was more likely.

The reason I wanted to write this case study was that I sent
her for a Post MRI and compared the previous MRI results. I was happy to see
that the Spinal disc was no longer resting on the nerve and the disc height was
increased.

The patient has since returned to her life she now exercises without
pain and is Pain free without the use of drugs or surgery. She is currently
coming in for preventive Chiropractic
care one to two times a month and works on her Core muscles strengthening
daily.

If you are suffering with Sciatica or if you feel
your leg
is weaker or hurts it could be due to a “pinched nerve”. If you want to
learn more about non-surgical treatments for herniated discs visit www.drshoshany.com